Case Number 26393: Small Claims Court

NIGHT TIDE (1961) (BLU-RAY)

The Charge

Was she human?

The Case

Night Tide should be required viewing for anyone making a low-budget,
independent horror movie.

Granted, Night Tide isn't a horror film the way we've come to expect
horror films to be; there are no zombies or monsters, no slashings or
dismemberments. The horror here is insidious; it creeps up on you, powered by
atmosphere and suggestion.

Johnny (Dennis Hopper, Blue Velvet) is a sailor on leave in a
California shore town. He meets Mora (Linda Lawson, Sometimes a Great
Notion) at a jazz club. She's beautiful and mysterious, and seems to want
nothing to do with him. When an older woman speaks to her in a foreign language,
she become agitated and leaves, but Johnny follows her. He's friendly and open,
and she eventually agrees to see him again.

Mora works at a carnival side show; she's a mermaid. Johnny learns that Mora
was brought to America from Greece as a child by a naval officer (Gavin Muir,
Johnny Trouble), who runs her side show exhibit.

As they become closer, Johnny learns that Mora believes she's a descendent
of the mythic Sirens, the beautiful sea creatures who lured sailors to their
deaths.

But Johnny learns something else about Mora, something far more disturbing:
her last two boyfriends, nice young men like Johnny, both died mysteriously,
their bodies found washed up on the beach. Could Mora really be a sea
creature who lures men to their deaths?

Director Curtis Harrington started making short, experimental films as a
teenager; he worked with Kenneth Anger on his landmark short Inauguration of
the Pleasure Dome. Years later, Harrington made lower-rent cult favorites
like Ruby, What's the Matter with Helen?, The Killing Kind,
and the TV movie How Awful About Allan. Night Tide was his first
feature, and arguably, his best; like its at the time neglected contemporary
Carnival of Souls, it's a strong and haunting meld of art and genre.

Harrington made Night Tide on a miniscule budget -- some accounts say
$25,000, others $50,000. There are no special effects to speak of, or big action
scenes of any kind; the film succeeds because of the intelligence and
sensitivity of its creator, and the craftsmanship on both sides of the
camera.

Beautiful, moody, and melancholy, Night Tide is a simple story, but
itâ€™s effectively told. Harrington drew his inspiration from literary
sources, include Edgar Allan Poe's poem "Annabelle Lee," which is
quoted as an endnote for the film.

The film is beautifully atmospheric. The cinematography by Vilis Lapenieks
somehow makes sunny, daylight scenes of Venice Beach seem as sinister as the
dark, and the score by David Raksin is sublime and evocative.

Linda Lawson is perfectly enigmatic as the elusive Mora, but it's Hopper's
performance that makes the film so poignant: sweet, earnest, trusting, he's
clearly no match for the demons that haunt the apparently doomed Mora.

Harrington makes good use of the carnival background without ever giving us
those "scary circus" scenes of crowds or distorted perception.
Instead, he introduces just a few midway denizens, including a man who runs the
merry-go-round with his granddaughter (the wonderful Luana Anders, Dementia
13) and fortune teller (Marjorie Eaton, Monstrosity) who reads
Johnny's Tarot. In this scene, Harrington again defies expectations: rather than
the usual whipping out of the death card (accompanied by an ominous music cue),
the Tarot reading is done without the standard exploitation trappings and
becomes, instead, a subtle, slightly disturbing sequence in which the psychic
actually tries to help Johnny.

Night Tide (Blu-ray) comes from Kino Lorber sporting an excellent,
remastered image and solid LPCM mono soundtrack. The black-and-white film looks
very good in high-def, with excellent contrast, fine detail, and a few print
imperfections to remind us that this is a low-budget film made over 50 years
ago. The supplements include a commentary with Dennis Hopper and Curtis
Harrington, ported from an earlier release, and a pair of interviews from 1987
that Harrington did for a cable TV show with writer David Del Valle.